Shinobi
by badwrong-princess
Summary: Follow the journey of three young ninja as they grow and learn about themselves, form bonds, and defeat enemies. The road won't be easy but so long as they work together and support each other they'll make it.
1. Naruto Uzumaki

so, this is kind of like a rewrite of naruto, something ive been wanting to do for a while. im not soing this cause i hate to original text, just kind of like something i thought could be interesting. dialogue is based off of a fan translation since all of my official manga is freaking gone! this is an alternate universe in the sense that ill be changing some stuff. will definitely go until the end to the land of waves arc, after that im not sure. but we will see.

* * *

Naruto grumbled to himself as he was pushed back into the classroom. He stumbled and tripped, falling on his butt in front of the rest of the students. The ropes didn't make keeping his balance easy. He had just gotten caught vandalizing the monument to the Hokages, and now he was being made to pay for it.

Not that he cared.

Iruka-sensei had lectured him the whole way back to the classroom, and now he was still talking down to him. Yelling about how graduation was the very next day and that he should be more focused on his studies.

"You don't need to be causing trouble, idiot!"

Naruto frowned and glared at the floor. "Whatever."

That must have really set Iruka-sensei off because he pulled a surprise test out of nowhere. He untied Naruto and told everyone to line up, a few students bumped and shoved Naruto as they did so. All of the students in front of him did a complete transformation into Iruka and passed. Soon it was Naruto's turn, and he had thought of the perfect way to get back at Iruka for calling him an idiot.

Naruto stood up and focused, forming his hands in the proper hand sign, and called, "Transformation Jutsu!"

In a puff of smoke, there stood a tall blonde, completely naked, with her hair in pigtails. She giggled and winked, blowing a kiss toward Iruka's way. Iruka's jaw fell open, and blood gushed out of his nose.

Naruto broke the illusion and laughed, tears forming in the corner of his eyes. "Wow, that really got you? Haha, I call the Sexy no Jutsu!"

Iruka did not think it was funny. "Instead of studying, you spend time making up stupid Jutsus?! Stop goofing off!"

_**xXx**_

After school, Iruka dragged Naruto out to the Hokage monument so that he could clean off all of the paint that he had thrown all over it. Naruto scrubbed away while Iruka watched him like a hawk.

"You can't go home until you've cleaned off every bit of paint!"

"Bah, who cares? It's not like I have anyone at home waiting for me!" He focused back on his work, pressing the scrub brush harder into the rock face.

"Hey, Naruto..."

"What?"

"If you hurry and make sure all of the paint of gone...I'll take you out for ramen tonight."

Naruto's face lite up and grinned broadly. "Okay, I'll work as hard as I can!"

A few hours later, Naruto had finished everything, and Iruka kept his promise and took Naruto out to the local ramen shop. They ordered, and Naruto dug into his food, slurping loudly.

"Naruto," Iruka started. "Why did you paint all over the Hokage Monument? That was really disrespectful, you know, don't you know who the Hokages are?"

Naruto nodded. "Of course, I know! The Hokage is the strongest shinobi in the whole village. The fourth Hokage was really powerful, he saved the village from the nine-tailed demon fox."

"Then why-"

"Because I'm gonna become Hokage, and I'll be greater than all other Hokage that came before me! Then everyone will have to respect me and acknowledge my strength!"

Iruka looked surprised by that declaration but didn't say anything.

"Oh...by the way, sensei, can I ask you for a favor?"

"Another bowl of ramen?"

Naruto shook his head. "No, I...Can I try on your headband, please?"

Iruka raised an eyebrow at him. "No, you only get one after you graduate. It's a symbol that you've finally become of age." He nudged Naruto a bit. "Maybe you'll get one tomorrow."

"Aw, man..."

"Is that why you took off your goggles," Iruka snickered.

Naruto blushed a bit and turned back to his food. "Buy me another bowl!"

"What!?"

After the dinner with Iruka, he and Naruto went their separate ways with Iruka telling Naruto to make sure he got a good night's rest. Naruto stuck his tongue out at him. The was to his apartment wasn't a long one, but Naruto liked to drag his feet. He was never in a rush to go back to his empty house.

As he walked, he noticed another student from his school. She had long pink hair tied back with a large red bow on the top of her head. She dressed in a red and white qipao dress and dark shorts. In one hand she held a plastic bag, and in the other hand, she held a book she was reading. Naruto knew her immediately, Sakura Haruno; she was another orphan whose family died a long, long time ago. He never got a chance to really talk to her, but he had always wanted to get to know her better. They were the same in certain ways, and Naruto thought that maybe...

Well, he didn't know what exactly, but he knew he would like to talk to her.

"Hey Sakura," he called to her and waved.

She looked up at him and rolled her eyes a bit. "What are you out so late? Shouldn't you be studying?"

Naruto scoffed and stuffed his hands in his pants pockets. "For what? I've got tomorrow's test in the bag."

Sakura gave him a skeptical look and tapped her book against her chin.

"Don't you believe me?"

"Well," she said, "haven't you failed twice before?"

He frowned, an embarrassed blush appearing on his cheeks. "You heard about that?"

"You're loud and obnoxious, it's hard _not _to hear about you."

Naruto grumbled to himself and kicked at the dirt. "Yeah, well...whatever. I'll be fine, just you wait and see."

Sakura looked him up and down before she shrugged a shoulder. "Whatever you say, Naruto. I'll see you later." Then she headed off, reading her book once more.

Naruto scratched the back of his head and went home. He thought that went well, all things considered, usually, people would simply glare at him while he walked by or parents would pull their kids away. He smiled to himself and then ran the rest of the way home so that he could get some sleep.

The next day back at the academy, Naruto sat at the back of the classroom, waiting for the final exam to start. Iruka walked into the class a clipboard in hand and addressed the students.

"Alright, everyone," he said, "Today's final exam will be on whether or not you can successfully perform a Clone Jutsu. When I call your name, go into the room down the hall so that you may be evaluated."

Naruto gulped. _'That's my worse skill!' _He cursed his bad luck, but that didn't deter him. When his name was called, he made his way into the examination room. He faced Iruka and another sensei named Mizuki. Determination crossed his face, and he did the Clone Jutsu hand sign.

After the cloud of smoke disappeared on the ground next to him laid a pale and pathetic clone. Naruto was horrified.

"You fail, Naruto," Iruka said, "again."

"Iruka-sensei," Mizuki spoke up, "We could let him pass. He did create a clone after all, which was the exam, and this is his third time take the test."

Whatever hope Naruto had at those words was quickly squashed by Iruka.

"No, I can't pass him when he creates a clone like that," he said. "The other students created at least two clones, and none of them were useless. I'm sorry, Naruto, but I can't pass you like this."

Naruto stormed out of the exam room and left the academy. He didn't think it was fair; sure, he goofed off a lot and caused trouble, but he still tried his hardest when it came to his ninja techniques. How was he supposed to become Hokage at this rate?

Naruto roamed around the village, not wanting to be around to hear all of those parents congratulating their kids or any snide comments they would have for him. It wasn't fair. It wasn't fair. _It was not fair_!

"Naruto!"

He stopped. "Mizuki-sensei?"

The man motioned him over, and Naruto followed after him.

"You know," he started slowly, "Iruka is a serious kind of guy. Since his parents...passed when he was a kid, he had to take care of things by himself."

"What's that got to do with him always picking on me?"

Mizuki looked over at him and smiled. "It's probably because he sees a lot of himself in you, you know? He probably pushes you because he knows you have real potential. He wants you to become strong in a real way. Try to understand how he's feeling."

"I just..." he sighed, "I just wished I graduated..."

Mizuki paused a moment, eyeing Naruto closely before taking a deep breath. "Well then...let me tell you a special secret that could help with that."

_**xXx**_

Later that night, Naturo snuck through the village while everyone else was asleep. He felt giddy, butterflies fluttered all around inside his stomach as he crept into the Hokage's place. He couldn't believe that there was still hope for him to graduate after all and once he learned that new jutsu Iruka would be so surprised with him.

Naruto made his way inside of the Hokage's place and crept along quietly. So far so good and Naruto thought he was getting close-

"What are you doing here," the Third Hokage asked.

Naruto nearly jumped and whirled around, his hands flying quicking in front of him. "Sexy no Jutsu!"

The shock and surprise must have been too much for him because he passed out, his nose gushing blood.

Naruto quickly scampered off and found what he was looking for; a large scroll. Naruto took it and strapped it to his back and then hurried off before the Third woke up and scolded him. He dashed off into the night, toward a clearing in the woods so that he could get to reading. Once there, Naruto sat down and opened the scroll.

"Alright, let's see," he mumbled as he read. "What!? The first Jutsu is a Shadow Clone Jutsu? Seriously, the thing I'm already bad at?" Naruto groaned and flopped back onto the forest floor. "Well...no one got to be the Hokage without some great skills. Yeah...that'll be nothing, I'll learn this jutsu and then see what else I can learn and then Iruka-sensei will pass me!"

Naruto stood up and got to work. He spent hours going over the jutsu, practicing the hand signs, and working up his stamina. It took a long time and a lot of trial and error, but eventually, he succeeded. Naruto stood there looking at a clone of himself. He and his shadow clone grinned broadly before his clone vanished an in a puff of smoke.

"_Naruto..._"

He looked over and grinned when he saw it was Iruka. "Sensei! I found you!"

"I'm the one who found you!"

"Oh right," he laughed. "And before I could learn anything else..."

Iruka paused and glanced over Naruto. "What have you been doing out here? You look worn out."

"Bah," Naruto brushed it off. "Listen, Iruka-sensei, I've gotta show this amazing jutsu I learned, alright. Then, you can let me graduate!"

"...Where did you get that scroll, Naruto?"

"Hm?" He looked back for a moment. "Oh, Mizuki-sensei told me about it, and he told me about this place. He said if I learned jutsu from this scroll, then you'll let me graduate!"

Naruto was then pushed hard, far back and away, when a flurry of kunai came flying at the duo. Naruto landed on the ground, and Iruka ended up taking a bunch of hits. He glared up in the direction the kunai had come from.

"I...see what's going on now..."

Mizuki scoffed, "Nice job finding the little idiot." He turned to Naruto. "Quick, give me the scroll."

Naruto looked between his two teachers.

"Naruto," Iruka said, coughing up some blood. "Don't you let go of that scroll. It has some dangerous and forbidden jutsu inside of it. He just used you to get his hands on it."

"What? Is that true, Mizuki-sensei?"

Mizuki rolled his eyes, "You're really going to listen to him? After all, he's put you through? After all of the lies?"

"Wha..."

"Naruto!" Iruka shouted. "Don't listen to him! Just hurry up and get out of here with the scroll!"

"You want to know the _big _secret he and everyone else in the village have been keeping from you this whole time?"

"Mizuki, enough!"

"What secret," Naruto demanded.

Mizuki cackled, "You know about the giant nin-tailed fox demon that had attacked the village and killed hundreds, including the Fourth Hokage?"

Naruto remained silent.

"The truth is that you, Naruto Uzumaki, are that very demon!"

"Stop it!"

"You were the one who attacked the village and killed all of those people, including Iruka's parents," Mizuki yelled. "Didn't you think it was odd how everyone hated you and shunned you. It's because you're a monster stuck in a human form, sealed up by the very Hokage you so desperately want to be!"

Naruto felt like the world had fallen out from under his feet. It made sense, no one would be happy trying to tolerate a beast who had attacked their house and killed their family and friends. No one would want someone like around. Images of adults gossiping about him and the kids being pulled away from him, leaving him all alone filled his mine.

"That's right," Mizuki continued. "Everyone hated and lied to you. Even Iruka, he's no different!"

Naruto felt something well up inside of him, hurt and anger over everything Mizuki had just told him. Just when things felt like he was about to overflow, he was knocked to the ground again. When he focused again, Naruto saw Iruka kneeling over him, a giant shuriken buried in his back.

"Sen...sensei?"

"When my parents died...I was all alone. There was no there to comfort me, or acknowledge me, everyone just moved on with their own lives and families...I just...I wasn't good at school, so I acted out because I wanted someone to pay attention to me. Even if it was to scold me, it was better than nothing. I was so alone, and it was so painful.

Naruto...you must have been feeling the same way. I'm sorry I didn't do a better job of looking after you. In making sure you were okay..."

Naruto could see the tears falling from Iruka's eyes while blood fell out of his mouth. He swallowed, this was all too much for him, but...he looked Iruka in the eyes and saw a lot of pain and sadness. Naruto took the scroll and ran as fast as he could.

Images of what Mizuki and told him and what Iruka had said and done were running through his head. He didn't know if what Mizuki had said about Iruka hating him was true. Still, then, he knew that all of Iruka's actions could have just been about not letting Mizuki get the scroll.

Naruto stopped, collapsing behind a large tree. He had trained too hard, and he couldn't go any further at the moment.

He wasn't alone for too long because not too far away, Mizuki and Iruka had confronted each other again. Naruto listened as Mizuki taunted Iruka, claiming that Naruto would use the scroll for his own gain.

"Of course, that kind of demon would use the scroll to take power for himself!"

Iruka coughed. "Yeah...you're right..."

Those words from Iruka felt like a kunai through the heart. _'So Mizuki was right...even Iruka-sensei hates me...I should just get out of here.'_

"A demon would use the power for himself. But Naruto isn't like that."

Naruto stopped.

"He's a pain in class, and he's clumsy...but he's still one of my hard-working students. He's a proud member of the leaf village, not some demon fox!"

Naruto felt tears well up in his eyes; he had never heard someone say such things about him before. It looked like Mizuki was up and ready to finally kill Iruka when Naruto jumped out, kicking him away.

"Naruto! I thought I told you to run away!"

Naruto didn't listen; he stood tall between Iruka and Mizuki. "Don't you dare touch Iruka-sensei!"

"Hah, I'll take you both out at once!"

"I'd like to see you try it," Naruto yelled and did a quick hand symbol, "Shadow Clone Jutsu!"

In a large puff of smoke, over a thousand shadow clones of Naruto stood around Mizuki. Both teachers looked shocked.

"What's wrong? Weren't you gonna get us all at once?"

Mizuki looked around, horrified before the Naruto clone army beat the crap out of him. Once that was taken care of, Naruto went over to help Iruka-sensei up.

"Maybe I went overboard on him..."

"Nevermind that," Iruka said with a small smile. "Come, I've got something I want to give you. Close your eyes."

Naruto looked at him but did as he was told. He waited and felt Iruka doing something weird to his head.

"Okay, open your eyes."

He did, and he looked at his teacher. Iruka stood in front of him without his headband holding Naruto's goggles. He reached up slowly and touched his new forehead protector.

"Congratulations on graduating Naruto," Iruka smiled. "To celebrate, I'll take you out for ramen."

For once Naruto was at a loss for words, he surged forward and hugged Iruka. He was so happy, and now his path to becoming Hokage had truly begun!


	2. Sakura Haruno

Next chapter is finally here!

* * *

From a very young age, Sakura Haruno wanted to be a skilled kunoichi. She had heard of stories of her parents and how skilled they were when they were alive; her father was good with genjutsu and chakra control while her mother was a talented taijutsu user. She wanted to honor them, to have people look at her, and not only acknowledge her skill but to remember her parents as well. So she worked hard, taking her academic work very seriously and trained to build up her physical abilities.

But being skillful isn't all she wanted.

Sakura remembered when she was young, and in kunoichi-only classes with her friend turned rival Ino; the women who taught those classes were always so cool, beautiful, and stylish. Sakura looked up to them and wanted to considered cool and stylish as well.

So once she had officially graduated, Sakura spent time in front of her full-length mirror, trying out different ways of wearing her headband. She tried it out in a few places; first around her neck, it was cute, but she found it uncomfortable to wear for an extended period of time. She tried wearing it on her arm, her waist, and various other places, but nothing felt right. She wouldn't put it on her forehead. She was saving that for a special occasion. Sakura couldn't decide at the moment, so she sat her headband on her dresser and went out for a walk. She still had some time before she needed to go to her photoshoot.

She went around through the village, seeing all of her classmates proudly wearing their headbands. They all looked so happy and proud of themselves while they were out with their families and friends. Sakura understood their feelings well, but she couldn't help but also feeling lonely.

"Well, if it isn't little miss billboard brow!"

Sakura whirled around and saw Ino Yamanaka standing behind her with two other girls from the academy. Ino looked the same as always with her platinum blonde hair in a high ponytail, a bang framing the right side of her face. She was wearing her usual high-collared blouse and matching apron skirt. She had on arm warmers and bandages wrapped around her legs and abdomen. Her forehead protector sat around her waist like a belt.

Sakura huffed and folded her arms. "What do you want, Ino-pig?"

Sakura could see Ino's eyes twitch, and she smirked to herself.

"Where's your forehead protector," Ino asked. "Is it too small?" The girls behind her laughed.

"Actually," Sakura started, "I'm saving it for my ID photo. I wouldn't want it to get dirty like...someone..." she trailed off and motioned to Ino's headband.

Ino looked down at her forehead protector and then back at Sakura. "What are you talking about; my headband isn't dirty."

"You sure?" Sakura asked. "Maybe you should look closer!"

Sakura kicked her leg upwards and sent a cloud of dirt and dust right at Ino and her goons. The girls squealed and coughed.

"Sakura!"

Sakura ran down the road with Ino and her goons right on her heels. She dodged between people and shops, trying to find a quick corner to duck into and hide. She hadn't brought any of her ninja tools with her on her walk, and now she regretted it.

She rounded the corner and skidded to a stop at the sight before her. Ino and her gang ended up crashing into Sakura's back, and they all fell over. Ino ended up falling on top of her.

"What did you stop running for!?" Ino asked her face bright red.

Sakura pushed up and got the other three girls off of her. "Look." She pointed toward a bathhouse and the two figures standing in front of it.

The figure on the right was short and fat, with brown hair in a spiky bun. The figure on the left was a bit taller, had long blonde hair pulled into two pigtails, and from what it looked like very distinctive cheek marks. Sakura didn't know who the figure on the right was, but she'd recognize those markings anywhere.

"Is that Naruto?"

"Ugh," one of Ino's goons said, "I can't believe they let a guy like that graduate!"

"Is he trying to sneak into the girl's bathhouse?"

"He's a creep and a pervert! You know I heard he made up some gross sexy jutsu so he could turn into a naked lady!"

Sakura never considered herself one of those students who hated Naruto like others in the academy. She found him annoying sure, but the time they've talked wasn't terrible. But there was no way she could forgive something like this! How could he use his ninja training to do something so...so distasteful! Sakura clenched her fist, hard enough for a vein to pop on it.

"Naruto!" She yelled and ran forward. She could hear Ino and the other girls following after her.

Naruto and his companion jumped and looked in their direction. When they realized what was happening, they quickly turned and ran away. The girls chased them for a while throughout the village until they lost them. The two goons ran off in one direction, leaving Sakura and Ino alone.

"Hey...Sakura."

"Hm?"

"Really, why aren't you wearing your headband?"

Sakura glanced over at Ino. "I already told you-"

"I don't believe that," Ino cut in. "We're rivals, but I still know you best. What are you planning?"

"You don't know everything about me," Sakura yelled, turning to face Ino and folded her arms. They were standing close, and Ino looked away and stepped back.

"Whatever," she said, "You can keep whatever _dumb _reason you have to yourself, Billboard Brow. But I don't think they have any larger sizes."

Sakura's annoyance flared, and for a moment, she thought back to when she and Ino were kids in class together. Sakura narrowed her eyes.

"You know...I'm not that little girl that used to follow you around everywhere," Sakura started. "I won't be outclassed by you. Not anymore."

"What are you talking about?"

Sakura had finally figured out how she would wear her headband. "Here," she reached up and untied her red ribbon from her hair, letting her bangs fall back into her forehead. She held out the piece of fabric for Ino to take. "I'm returning this."

"That was a gift."

"You wanted to know about my forehead protector, then I'll tell you," she said. "I'll put it on my forehead when you and I can face each other as an equal kunoichi. Not a moment before then."

Ino looked at Sakura and then down at the ribbon in her hands. After a moment, she smirked and clasped Sakura's hand.

"Alright, Sakura, then I'll do the same. When we meet on the battlefield as equals, we'll wear our headbands with pride."

Sakura felt her heart swell; when she had declared Ino her rival all those years ago, it felt like an uphill battle. Through their friendship, Sakura had gained a lot of confidence, but she still thought herself lacking in certain areas compared to Ino. Ino was the centerpiece, and Sakura was always the compliment, but that would no longer be the case. Ino agreeing to her terms made it feel like things were properly getting started. Now she was officially a ninja. She knew she had her work cut out for her, but this was only the beginning.

* * *

Sakura went home to put on her headband and then gotten her ID photo taken. It was official now, and tomorrow she would be put on her genin team. All of her hard work was paying off, and she couldn't wait to get out in the field and show off her stuff. She felt like she was walking on air.

"Oh, Sakura-chan!"

She turned and frowned. Naruto was running up to her, still transformed into a girl with long pigtails.

She folded her arms and narrowed her eyes at him. "You're still like that? You're such a pervert."

"No, it's not what you think!"

"Sure."

"No...well...I mean," he sighed. "Okay, when you caught me earlier, I _was _trying to sneak into a ladies' bath, but only because I was trying to teach Konohamaru the Sexy Jutsu!"

Sakura's right eye twitched; did he think that made it better? "Showing the Third Hokage's grandson, something like that is disgraceful!"

"Wha...He wanted to learn from me since my technique was so cool, and who am I to deny that to a kid? Otherwise, he would have learned by himself."

Sakura's face remained unimpressed. "Fine, whatever, you 'taught' him. Why are you still like that?"

"Oh, um..." Naruto looked down at himself and then back up at her. He rubbed the back of his neck and sighed. "Well...it's comfortable, y'know? Natural?"

"What are you talking about?"

"Exactly what I said? I mean, I don't do this a lot but...it's just-"

"It's weird," Sakura cut in. She wasn't in the mood for whatever weird thing Naruto was trying to pull.

While Sakura wasn't like other kids in the village who hated Naruto and would steer clear of him whenever they could, but she wouldn't say she liked him either. He was well known throughout the academy for being annoying and a troublemaker for a reason, after all. Stunts like these were part of the reason why. She shook her head at him.

"You're going to have to cut stuff like this out. You're a ninja now, Naruto, you can't keep goofing off forever, you'll just end up holding yourself back."

She turned and left then, not wanting to talk to him any longer than she already had. Quietly to herself, Sakura hoped that she got put on a decent squad the next day.

Preferably one that didn't have Naruto on it.


	3. Sasuke Uchiha

hey, i hope you all had a happy new year! i also hope you enjoy sasuke's chapter! let me know what you think of sasuke's characterization in this chapter, im curious.

* * *

After his family's massacre, Sasuke had spent five days alone in the manor. Five days alone in what had become his family's mass grave. He sat there with the dead bodies of his parents as they grew colder, and their blood seeped deep into the floor.

He thought of his caring and kind mother, how easy it was for him to talk to her when he was having trouble and how she would calm him down. He thought of his father and the few moments they spent together and their training. And of course, he thought of his brother.

Sasuke had loved his brother, Itachi, more than anything. Itachi had always made time for him, long before his father had turned his eyes on him. Itachi had helped him train in his early days at the academy. But now all of those memories were sour and made Sasuke feel sick. Anger burned inside of him, his brother's words to him repeating over and over in his head.

For five days, Sasuke Uchiha was alone.

By the time Sasuke had been discovered as the sole survivor, he had fully taken his brother's words to heart. He would hunt Itachi down and kill him, avenge his family and build his clan back up.

Sasuke Uchiha was six years old.

Over the next six years, Sasuke excelled in the academy. He was always at the top of his class in every aspect. Teachers praised him, and students admired him. They would comment on how strong he was to do so well after such a tragedy. Sasuke paid them no mind. All he thought about was Itachi and taking him down.

There was one thorn in his side, however. Another kid in the academy called Naruto Uzumaki; he was an annoying kid with basically no talent for any of the ninja arts, and he was always trying to pick fights with him at any point. He never won against Sasuke, but at the very least, it helped Sasuke practice anticipating surprise attacks.

He had been more than a bit surprised when he noticed the loud blonde walk into the classroom the day they were all going to get their team assignments wearing the official ninja headband. Though Sasuke supposed even someone like him could perform a meager clone jutsu. Sasuke closed his eyes and didn't pay him or anyone else in the classroom much attention. He simply waited for their teacher to assign them to teams. Sasuke vaguely knew of a few students with high marks that, while nowhere near as good as him, would be teammates that wouldn't get in his way at the very least.

He didn't need any distractions or anyone slowing him down.

When he opened his eyes again, he suddenly faced with the annoying Naruto. Sasuke narrowed his eyes.

"What do you want?"

"Ugh, Naruto, stop fooling around and gt out of Sasuke-kun's face!"

The blonde ignored whoever had said that and leaned in closer. Sasuke could feel a vein in his temple, starting to pop. He was close to punching this annoyance in the face.

Then, without warning, their lips touched, and they were kissing.

His mind went blank; Sasuke was ready for all sorts of attacks but not this time. He pulled back, his face red and coughed, wiping at his mouth. He looked back at Naruto; he had a hand covering his mouth, and his face was bright red.

_'What the hell was that?'_

Before anything else could happen, Iruka walked into the classroom. "Alright, alright, everyone sit down. Naruto! Get off of the desktop!"

Iruka went over some bland and unimportant information that Sasuke didn't care about; he simply wanted to meet his Jounin teacher and head out already.

"Alright, next team number seven," Iruka continued. "Will be Sakura Haruno...Naruto Uzumaki...and finally, Sasuke Uchiha."

Sasuke felt his annoyance spike.

"Iruka-sensei," Naruto whined, "why am _I _on a team with someone like Sasuke-teme?"

Sasuke couldn't stop himself from snorting, glancing over at Naruto. "Try not to drag me down...dead-last."

"What did you call me!?"

"Naruto, come on!"

* * *

During the break, Sasuke found a quiet place so that he could eat in peace. His team assignment was less than desirable. He didn't know anything about that Sakura Haruno girl, but he couldn't imagine that she would get in his way. If balancing the team was the goal, then she had to be somewhere in the middle. But that Naruto...Sasuke's face flushed in frustration. He had been easy to beat up and ignore during his academy days, but now they were teammates...and that stupid idiot trying to mess with his head with that stupid kiss.

Sasuke just knew that he had better not get in his way on his path to kill Itachi. He wasn't interested in hurting anyone else, but...

Sasuke gasped when a rag covered his face, and he was pulled backward. This had been the second time today Sasuke had been taken by surprise, and he was already tired of it. He had graduated but was already slipping. Sasuke elbowed his attacker and heard them fall to the floor.

He turned around and saw none other than Naruto on the floor, clutching his stomach. Sasuke felt a vein in his forehead pop. "What are you doing!?"

Naruto didn't answer him, just looked up at Sasuke with a mischevious smirk on his stupid face. Sasuke clenched his face; he has had enough!

But then someone from behind grabbed him, taking a rope and working on tieing his hands behind his back. Before Sasuke could do anything, Naruto had sprung up, his face moving closer and closer to Sasuke's own. Sasuke's mind went blank.

In the blink of an eye, Sasuke found himself bound with rope and on the floor. He blinked a couple of times and glared up at Naruto, who stuck his tongue out at him and then transformed into him before leaving him there on the floor.

Sasuke was going to have his head. They've barely been teammates for a day and look at what happened to him!

Sasuke took a few deep breaths to try and calm himself down and cut himself free from the rope. He stormed off, knowing that their break was almost over and that they would have to get ready to meet their new jounin teacher. Sasuke would simply deal with Naruto later; he wouldn't let Naruto get away with this.

He stuffed his hands into his pockets and headed back toward the classroom.

"Oh, Sasuke-kun, you're back!"

He looked over and saw Sakura walking toward him. She looked nervous and kind of excited at the same time. He could see a faint blush on her cheek, and Sasuke nearly rolled his eyes.

"Where's Naruto?"

"Eh...excuse me?"

"Its time to go back to the class," he said. "Where is Naruto?"

"I...why do you care? Are you two going to fight or something?"

Sasuke didn't answer her.

"Sasuke-kun..." she trailed off. "Sasuke-kun, I know Naruto can be...annoying, believe me, he gets on my nerves too. But you can deal with it. You don't have to stoop to-"

"Who are you to lecture me," he snapped.

Sakura looked shocked.

"Tch," Sasuke turned from her, "Whatever, I'm going back to the classroom, whenever you find Naruto hurry up and bring him. And tell him his little stunt was stupid."

Sasuke walked off and frowned, being on a team with these two was going to be annoying as hell, he could already feel it.

He walked back to the classroom and sat back down in the back corner, waiting for his 'teammates' to come back. Students started filling the room with Sakura and Naruto filling in near the end, so they ended up sitting toward the front of the classroom. One by one jounin showed up and collected their team until finally, it was only Sasuke, Sakura, and Naruto left in the classroom.

This day didn't go at all how Sasuke had imagined it.

Sakura and Naruto were complaining and going back and forth since Naruto seemed to be getting antsy.

_'I'm stuck with a bunch of children...'_

Sasuke watched as Naruto stuffed an eraser between the door and wall, laughing to himself all the while. Sakura scolded him, but Sasuke could only scoff.

"Give it up dead last," he said, "a Jounin would never fall for that. They're some of the most skilled people in the village."

"Sometimes 'skilled' people can fall for simple attacks," Naruto said while giving Sasuke a sly look.

Sasuke felt his forehead vein throbbing again.

When their Jounin sensei finally showed up, he fell for Naruto's stupid prank hook-line-and-sinker. Sasuke grimaced, he was stuck with another unreliable person it seemed.

Their new sensei was a tall, fit man with spiky gray hair that leaned to the left. He had a mask covering the lower part of his face and nose, his headband was worn in a way to cover his left eye, and had the standard shinobi vest.

The Jounin looked over the genin and rubbed his chin. "So...first impressions and...I don't like you guys. At all." The Jounin turned and motioned for them to follow. "Let's get out of this stuffy room."

Sakura nudged Naruto in his ribs and chastised him, though Sasuke didn't pay too much attention to what she had said to him.

Their new sensei led them up to the roof. "Okay," he said, "Let's introduce ourselves, likes, dislikes, dreams for the future, and all that junk. Go ahead." He motioned with his hand.

Sasuke rolled his eyes.

Naruto folded his arms and eyed the Jounin suspiciously. "Why don't you go first?"

"Yeah," Sakura jumped in quickly. "l-I mean, you can give an example of how you'd like us to introduce ourselves."

"Hmm...okay," he shrugged. "I'm your teacher, Kakashi Hatake. My likes and dislikes are none of your business, nor are my dreams for the future. Oh, but I have a lot of hobbies. Now you go."

Sakura mumbled about something Sasuke didn't pay attention to, and then they started their introductions. The most interesting thing Naruto had said was that he wanted to be Hokage; Sasuke didn't understand why untalented ninja like him insisted on aiming for impossible dreams like that. Sakura was way more reasonable and attainable as far as Sasuke was concerned. She wanted to be a highly skilled ninja and honor her fallen parents. Sasuke could respect a goal like that.

Finally, it was Sasuke's turn. "I'm Sasuke Uchiha, and I have a lot of dislikes and not a lot of likes," he said. "I don't have many hobbies and my dream...well, my goal..." He paused. "My _ambition_ is to resurrect my clan and kill a certain man..."

There was silence after he finished speaking. Sasuke didn't care what they thought of his goals. He was singularly focused and wouldn't let these people hold him back.

Kakashi spoke up. "Great, now that that's over tomorrow, we'll all start our shinobi duties."

"Alright! What's up first!?" Naruto yelled.

"Tomorrow," Kakashi continued, "we're going to do survival training, just the four of us."

This was going to be a waste of time; Sasuke could feel it.

"Oh don't worry, this'll be different from what you've done in the academy," Kakashi said. "This time, I'll be your opponent."

"Isn't that...unfair," Sakura asked. "The three of us against you?"

Kakashi laughed at that and shook his head. "Okay, listen, of the twenty-seven students that graduated from the academy, only nine will truly become genin. Everyone else will be sent back to the academy. This survival exercise has a sixty-six percent of failure."

_'Ah,'_ Sasuke thought, _'I suppose I've been too quick to judge Kakashi. I'll show my skill, move on to genin, and then I'll get real training.'_

"Make sure you bring all of your ninja tools," Kakashi said, "and don't eat breakfast. Otherwise, you'll throw up, and that wouldn't be very becoming of a ninja."

Kakashi handed them all papers with the location and other information on it. Sasuke skimmed it before crumpling it and throwing it away.

Even with how difficult this test was supposed to be, he was confident that he'd make it through no problem. He wasn't going to let anything stand the way of his ambition.


	4. Team Building

finally a new chapter! i feel like i should apologize for the wait but i was never happy with this chapter, still not fully but i didnt want to wait any longer. let me know what you think :)

* * *

The three young ninjas went home and prepared for their survival training again, their new teacher. Naruto created a crude dummy of Kakashi and practiced striking it, trying to come up with tactics that would keep him on his path toward becoming Hokage. Sasuke spent the night much the same; he had confidence that he could take on a man like Kakashi. He might have had misjudged him initially, but he was still sure that his skill level could take on someone who had fallen for a simple eraser prank.

Sakura was a bit of a different story.

She went home after buying dinner she thought over all of the information that had been on the paper Kakashi had given them. At first, she had been worried about this test because surely, the three of them against one ninja, even a jounin, couldn't be a fair fight. The more she thought about it, the more she felt that there had to be a catch of some kind.

Despite what Kakashi had seemed like Sakura guessed that he had to be much more skilled than he appeared to be on the surface. There was probably something she was missing, but it was getting late, and since she had to skip breakfast the next day, she at least wanted a good night's sleep. So she headed to bed.

The next day Sasuke, Naruto, and Sakura met up at the training field with their bags full of survival tools and waited for Kakashi to show up. Time stretched on, and the sun rose higher and higher in the sky. Sasuke stayed quiet, leaning against a nearby tree, Naruto complained, and though Sakura didn't disagree with him she would urge him to be quiet; complaining wouldn't help.

"We got stuck with the worst teacher!" Naruto complained loudly as he plopped down on the ground.

"Naruto, enough," Sakura huffed, "Maybe this is part of the training. Patience is key; some times, you'll have to be on stakeouts for nights on end. Are you going to complain then?"

Even though she had said that Sakura was getting annoyed as well, her empty stomach did not make the situation any better.

"Ah, you're all on time! Good morning!"

The young ninja turned to see their new teacher walking on to the training ground.

"You're late!"

Kakashi waved a hand as he looked through his bag and pulled out an alarm clock. He set the timer to go off at noon. Once he finished with that, he pulled out two bells and held them up.

"You see these two bells?"

The three nodded.

"You have to take them from me before the timer goes off. If you don't you'll fail," Kakashi explained, "Not only will you fail, but whoever doesn't get a bell from me will get no lunch. You'll be tied to one of those stumps over there, and I'll eat your lunch in front of you."

_'That's why he didn't want us to eat?!'_

Kakashi went about securing the bells to his waist. "Since there are only two bells, one of you will fail this test. So you've got to come at me with everything you've got. Strike to kill, or else there will be no point."

Naruto snorted. "Please, you couldn't dodge a blackboard eraser. If we strike to kill you, you'll definitely die!"

Kakashi rolled his eyes. "Loud ones are usually the weakest. So, we'll start when I say 'go'."

Naruto's annoyance and anger spiked; he caught a glance of Sasuke from the corner of his eye with a smirk on his face. Where do either of these two get off talking down to him like that? He got the better of both them the other day! He was not weak!

In a flash, Naruto pulled out a kunai and moved to strike Kakashi. Sakura gasped, surprised by the outburst. Sasuke thought it was a dumb move on Naruto's part, but he admired his drive. But, just as quickly, Kakashi stood behind Naruto, holding him in place and using his own kunai against him.

"I didn't say 'go' yet," Kakashi as if nothing happened.

Sakura blinked a couple of times. _'I couldn't even see him move.'_ She knew this test would be much more difficult than it seemed.

Sasuke looked impressed. _'So this is the real power of a jounin...'_ Sasuke finally felt like this was going to be worth his time.

"Though you did strike with intent to kill," there was amusement in Kakashi's voice. "Seems like you're starting to take me seriously. Perhaps...I'm starting to like you guys. Alright, let's begin!"

* * *

Minutes ticked away, and so far, Kakashi found these young ninjas to be pretty competent. They had hidden very well; he didn't have any sense of where they could have been.

"It's time for the battle to begin!"

Well, he didn't have a sense for two of them.

"What are you doing?"

Naruto charged forward, "What do you think? I'm going to get one of those bells!"

"First lesson of today will be taijutsu," Kakashi said as he dug into his pouch.

Naruto stopped, watching Kakashi closely. _'Why's he going for a weapon if he wants to do hand to hand?'_ He shook his head. He couldn't get distracted. He had to get one of those bells!

Kakashi ended up pulling out a book.

"Okay," Naruto said, "What are you doing?"

Kakashi glanced over at him. "Reading, obviously. Don't tell me you're unfamiliar with the concept."

An irritated vein popped out of Naruto's forehead.

"Besides, with your skill level, this book won't make much difference."

Naruto had had enough. He charged forward and attacked, kicking and punching at Kakashi, trying to beat that smug attitude out of him. Kakashi dodged and parried all of his attacks like they were nothing. Sakura and Sasuke could see the whole thing from their hiding spots.

Kakashi swiftly ended up behind Naruto and sighed. "A ninja isn't supposed to get caught from behind."

Sakura shifted her position a bit to get a better look and could see the hand seal Kakashi had made. Her eyes widened when she realized what it was.

From his hiding spot, Sasuke looked impressed. _'That's a fire style hand sign...he's really serious.'_

"Naruto," Sakura yelled, giving herself away. "Naruto, move! He's going to use ninjutsu on you. You're going to get yourself killed!"

But it was too late, Kakashi struck. "Secret technique, ultimate taijutsu! One thousand years of death!"

Naruto went flying and landed into the nearby lake.

_'Our teacher is an idiot,'_ Sasuke thought to himself.

Sakura rubbed her temples as she quickly ran off to find another hiding spot. _'He's just toying with us,'_ she thought, and her stomach growled. _'How are any of us supposed to take him out on our own?'_

Naruto pulled himself out of the lake, coughing while he did so.

"Oh, what happened? If you don't get one of these bells before noon, you won't get any lunch."

"I know that!"

"You don't have a lot of strength for someone who wants to be the next Hokage."

"Oh shut up," Naruto yelled, "I can still fight on an empty stomach. I was just too careless before!"

"That can be your worst enemy, y'know?"

"And you talk too much," Naruto yelled. "Now!"

From the lake, multiple shadow clones emerged and charged at Kakashi.

"My shadow clone jutsu," Naruto said. "Better not get careless now, sensei!"

Sasuke narrowed his eyes. _'Is that how he jumped me the other day!?'_

"That's pretty impressive, shadow clones are difficult to maintain, especially on an empty stomach," Kakashi said, "but you're still just Naruto. More of you won't make a diff-"

He was grabbed from behind, whoever was behind him hand looped their arms under Kakashi's armpits and over his shoulders, restricting his movements.

"I thought ninjas weren't supposed to get caught from behind Kakashi-sensei!"

Other shadow clones grabbed at Kakashi's legs, and Naruto felt very proud of himself.

"Now, here's payback!"

He struck, but when Naruto looked, he had punched one of his clones instead of Kakashi. The initial surprise wore off quickly, though, because Naruto knew what this was; it was a transformation jutsu! Well, Naruto wasn't going to fall for a simple trick like that.

"Reveal yourself, Kakashi-sensei!"

A fight between clones broke out, but once the dust settled, only Naruto was left in the open field.

"Dammit!"

From his hiding spot, Sasuke rolled his eyes. From where he sat, he could easily tell that that had been a substitution jutsu, which meant Kakashi had vanished. He spent all that time watching him goof around with Naruto, and Sasuke couldn't find a single opening. He knew he couldn't sit there all day, but he wouldn't be brash like Naruto and charge in without a plan.

Naruto had ended up getting caught in an obvious trap, and Kakashi showed up to lecture him.

"Shinobi have to pay more attention; they have to be aware of what's-"

"I know that!"

"No, you don't, that's why I'm telling you."

Sasuke thought that that was his chance. It was small, but it would be just enough; he took out his shuriken and threw them. As quick as lightning, the shuriken flew through the air and struck their target.

"Holy shit, Sasuke! That's too much!"

But in a puff of smoke, Kakashi turned into a log. Sasuke cursed and quickly discarded his current hiding spot.

"I fell right into his trap..." Sasuke couldn't believe he had been so sloppy.

He looked around but couldn't see Kakashi anywhere. Sasuke landed on the ground, near Naruto, who was still caught in the trap.

"Dammit..."

"Hey, hey, Sasuke!" Naruto called down to him. "Get me out of here."

Sasuke glared up at him and snorted. "Shouldn't future Hokages be able to get out of a simple trap such as that?"

"You bastard!"

Sasuke didn't stay around long enough for Naruto to say anything else. He had to rethink his strategy to secure one of those bells.

* * *

Sakura ran through the bushes and trees of the training area. She kept low to the ground, keeping her eyes peeled for any sign of Kakashi.

She had the beginnings of a plan forming in her head; she needed to find Sasuke. After she had watched Kakashi play around with Naruto, she knew that there wouldn't be much she could do against him alone. While Sasuke had been at the top of their class, she wasn't sure if he'd be able to handle their sensei on his own. But Sakura was sure if they worked together, then they may have a chance.

A small part of her felt bad for leaving Naruto out of it, but there were only two bells. All of them wouldn't be able to make it. She had to be smart about this.

She rounded another tree before dropping to her knees. Kakashi stood only a few feet away, still reading his book. She sighed softly when it looked like Kakashi hadn't noticed her.

_'Good, I can still sneak away.'_

"Sakura, behind you."

She didn't have much time to react before a whirlwind of leaves obscured her vision, and Kakashi seemingly disappeared.

"What was that!?"

She looked around but couldn't see Kakashi anywhere. Sakura swallowed, something had definitely happened, but everything seemed fine. Maybe it was a fluke.

Sakura took a couple of deep breaths; she wasn't out of this just yet.

"...ku...ra..."

She turned around.

"Sasuke-kun?"

"Saku...ra..."

"Oh, Sasuke-kun!" He didn't sound too good, but Sakura was sure he wasn't hurt too badly. This was simply a survival test, after all. Kakashi wouldn't do anything to them that would cause serious injury. He was a jounin after all. "I've been looking for you, listen, I've got an idea."

She moved closer to the direction she had heard Sasuke's voice.

"I think if we..."

Sakura's breath caught in her throat. Sasuke sat in front of her his body littered with kunai, shuriken, and other blades. He was bleeding profusely from blade wounds, one of his legs was broken, and he was missing an arm. Sasuke's face was covered in cuts and bruises with a shuriken buried into one of his eyes.

Her stomach twisted in on itself, and she felt the ground disappear from beneath her feet. She didn't hear herself scream before she passed out.

Kakashi watched the short display from the treetops. "She fell for the genjutsu...though I suppose that I went a tad overboard. But...it did seem like she was on the right path...maybe there's hope yet."

* * *

Sasuke had found a decent spot, not too open and not too closed off, with a good amount of coverage. It allowed him to lay his traps but still gave him enough space for him to take on Kakashi hand to hand if he needed to.

After falling for Kakashi's trick earlier, Sasuke decided that it would be best for Kakashi to come to him on his turf, so to speak. Sasuke wasn't like either of his so-called 'teammates'.

"Standing out in the open. That's pretty bold."

Sasuke turned to face Kakashi; the man still had his relaxed pose and his book in his hand. Sasuke moved, throwing shuriken at Kakashi. The man dodged easily enough and tried to throw a snarky remark at him, but Sasuke ignored him and activated his trap.

Rows of blades shot out from their hiding place. Kakashi dodged those blades as well, but Sasuke had already moved. He was quick, delivering three consecutive blows to the man, but he blocked all of them.

Knocking Kakashi wasn't Sasuke's goal, though. The position Sasuke maneuvered himself into left him within reach of the bells. He reached out to grab it before Kakashi pushed him back.

"Hm...I guess I have to admit it; you certainly are different from the other two."

Sasuke didn't waste any time; Naruto may have wanted to talk Kakashi's ear off during the fight, but as Kakashi said, Sasuke was different. Sasuke quickly did the hand signs and grinned at the look of surprise on Kakashi's face.

_'Naruto's not the only one with a surprise jutsu,'_ Sasuke took a deep breath, "Fire style, Fireball jutsu!" He blew out a massive ball of fire toward Kakashi.

He had been sure he had hit his mark, but once his jutsu ended, Kakashi was nowhere in sight.

_'Crap, crap, crap!'_ He had been duped by Kakashi again. Just when he thought Kakashi had let his guard down again. Well, he wasn't going to get Sasuke again. Sasuke pulled out a kunai and looked around for the jounin. "Where the hell is he!?"

"Earth style, Headhunter jutsu!"

Before he could do anything, Sasuke was pulled into the ground beneath him until only his head was left out. Kakashi knelt in front of him, and though Sasuke could only see one of Kakashi's eyes, he knew he had an annoying grin on his face.

"The final lesson, ninjutsu, though you seem to have a basic understanding of that yourself. But you certainly are a cut above the rest. Couldn't even read my book

while dealing with you." Kakashi patted Sasuke's head mockingly. "But, you know they say; the nail that stands out must be hammered down."

With a final wave, Kakashi vanished, leaving Sasuke there by himself.

* * *

Sakura felt drowsy as she slowly sat up, rubbing her head. She looked around, looking for both Sasuke and Kakashi, but she saw neither.

"Sasuke-kun," she called. "Sasuke-kun!"

What she had seen...that couldn't have been real. There was no way Kakashi would have done that to Sasuke; sure, they could attack him with lethal force, Kakashi wouldn't do that to them. It would be completely unfair!

Sakura shook her head; she had to stay focused. What she had seen wasn't real unless she found some kind of evidence. Until then, she still needed to find Sasuke and get him to work with her. Sakura stood and went through the bushes and trees, keeping her eyes out for Kakashi while she looked for Sasuke.

"Oh, Sasuke-kun," she called when she had finally found him. "What happened to you? Why are you buried up to your neck?"

"What do you think happened," he snapped at her. "Help me out of here!"

Sakura huffed at his tone but did help him out of the ground. Once Sasuke was free, he dusted himself off and started to leave.

"Sasuke-kun, wait," Sakura grabbed his shirt. "Listen, Kakashi-sensei is...he's too powerful for us. But maybe...maybe if we came at him together we'd have a better chance."

Sasuke pulled his shirt free from Sakura's grasp. He glared at her. "It's almost lunchtime. I don't have time for you to follow me around and nip at my heels."

Sakura was starting why anyone found Sasuke cool. "I'm not-"

"I'm an avenger," he cut in, "there's a man out there that only I can kill. I have to get stronger. I can't waste any time fooling around with you and Naruto. I have to-"

The time rang out, and Sasuke cursed. Sakura felt her heart drop.

"We're too late."

* * *

Sasuke and Sakura sat in front of two of the stumps while Naruto had been tied to one. Kakashi stood in front of them, his hands in his pockets and a bored look in his eyes.

"Well, that could have gone better," he said.

The three young ninjas looked despondent.

"But, as far as I can see," he sighed. "I mean, the three of you don't need to go back to the academy."

"Wow, really!?"

"Yeah, you should all simply give up."

"W-Wha..."

"Quit being ninja."

"Hey!" Naruto yelled, kicking his legs. "Just because we didn't the stupid bells doesn't mean we should quit! What the hell!?"

"You should quit because you're all brats, and you don't deserve to be ninja."

"Excuse me," Sakura exclaimed.

"I thought there had been a bit of hope...that you all would figure it out, but ultimately its no use."

Sasuke shot forward, running straight for Kakashi, but just like last time, Kakashi moved far faster than any of them could see and had Sasuke pinned to the ground.

"This is exactly what I mean."

"Kakashi-sensei," Sakura said, "I think you're too harsh. Both Naruto and Sasuke clearly showed that they have skills and I-"

"Sakura," Kakashi cut her off. "You went out looking for Sasuke even though Naruto had been much closer to you. Did you even try to work with him?

Naruto simply ran in all by himself and Sasuke...you thought that both Naruto and Sakura were so beneath you that you didn't even try to work with either of them.

I thought that Sakura had found the right track, but she was so singularly focused it was still a disappointment."

"What the hell were we supposed to do then," Naruto shouted. "You keep talking around in circles why don't you just say what you mean!"

Kakashi rubbed his forehead. "The answer is 'teamwork'. That's why you were split up into teams in the first place. The duties a ninja is responsible for is done in teams. Yeah, individual skill is important, but it's nothing without teamwork.

You can't just go rushing off by yourself when you're out there on a mission. You could ruin the entire mission and end up getting yourself or teammates killed."

He pulled out a kunai and held it Sasuke's neck. "Sakura, kill Naruto or Sasuke's dies."

"What!?"

Kakashi sighed. "You'll find yourself in situations like that, and you have to make tough decisions."

He stood up and walked passed them, resting a hand on carved stone behind them.

"This is a memorial...for the fallen heroes of the village. My best friend's name is carved here," he said. He turned back around toward the group. "I'll give you three one more chance. If any of you want to try again, then you certainly can, but I'll make it even harder for you to get these bells.

You can have the lunches, but Naruto can't have any. Since he tried to steal and take the lunches himself, he'll continue to go hungry. If either of you give him any food, it's an automatic fail. We'll begin as soon as you're finished."

Then Kakashi vanished.

Sakura flopped back down on the ground and glanced over at one of those lunch boxes. Sasuke stood up and retrieved one for himself.

"Blah, I don't need any lunch, I'll be just fine," Naruto shouted, though the growl of his stomach said otherwise.

"Here," Sasuke said. "If we split it all evenly, there should be enough for all three of us not to be hungry anymore."

"Wow, seriously," Naruto said and licked his lips.

"Yeah," he looked over at Sakura. "You were right, Sakura, putting our skills together could help us win this time."

Sakura picked up the other lunch and looked around. "Yeah...let's be quick though, we don't know when Kakashi-sensei will be back."

"I don't sense him anywhere," Sasuke said as Sakura split up their lunch. "We should be fine."

Sakura and Sasuke took turns feeding Naruto as well as themselves, while Sakura talked about some potential ways they could attack Kakashi.

"Congratulations."

Standing above then in one of the trees was Kakashi, his face unusually bright. "You all pass!"

"What!?"

"You heard me, you all pass," he said as he hopped out of the tree and walked toward them.

"We didn't even get a chance to get the bells this time, though..."

Kakashi waved a hand. "It was never about the bells. Previous students would always simply do exactly what I told them to do...a ninja who breaks the rules and disregards ninja codes may be lowly trash...But those who don't take care of their comrades are even lower than that."

"Woah..."

"That'll conclude the training for today," Kakashi said with a grin in his eye. "Tomorrow, we'll start our duties as team seven officially."

Naruto and Sakura cheered. Sasuke let out a relieved sigh. Naruto was untied from the stump, and they all headed home, ready for whatever awaited them in the upcoming days.


	5. Mission Start! My Fiance is a Flirt?

so i dont know what happened with the other version of this chapter. it did not look like that when i hit save and posted it. but this version is fixed. sorry to everyone!

* * *

Their first couple of missions weren't anything either of the new genin found impressive. It had mostly been recovering lost pets for wealthy people from surrounding villages, a simple task for the genin to continue practicing their skills and teamwork, but by the third pet recovery mission Sasuke, Sakura, and Naruto wanted to pull their hair out. Naruto, true to himself, was the only one to voice his complaint directly to Kakashi.

"Sensei," he boasted, "if I have to catch another cat for a rich fat lady, I'll go crazy!"

Kakashi glanced up from his book only for a second before looking back down. "These are important missions for genin. You three passed my teamwork exam, but there are still a lot of bumps you need to work out."

"Yes...but Kakashi-sensei," Sakura spoke up, "isn't there another type of mission we could do? That doesn't involve finding escaped cats?"

Kakashi looked up again and looked between Sakura and Naruto. Then he turned his gaze to Sasuke. "Do you feel the same, Sasuke?"

Sasuke stood nearby with his arms folded. "...They are getting repetitive..."

Kakashi thought it over for a moment. "Alright then...when we meet with the Hokage, you all can voice your concerns then and see if he gives you something other than pet wrangling." In truth, Kakashi wasn't sure if the Hokage would grant such a thing, there might not be anything else at the moment, and even if there were, he might not deem it suitable for team 7. But he supposed there was no harm in asking. Best to quell this aggravation as early as possible.

When the team gathered in front of the Hokage for their next mission, Naruto spoke up without waiting for the Hokage to finish speaking. Kakashi inwardly sighed and wondered if he was going to get yelled at later. Their former teacher Iruka scolded the young ninja, but the Hokage waved him off.

"Well...there is another D-rank that recently came in. A young lady from a neighboring village requests helps in the matters of the heart."

"What," Naruto whined and pulled a face.

"Naruto!" Sakura elbowed him in his side. "What do you mean, Hokage-sama?"

"Further details of this mission are only to be given out when it is officially accepted."

"It's not pet wrangling," Kakashi pointed out.

"Playing matchmaker doesn't seem like a mission for a ninja," Sasuke mumbled under his breath.

Sakura grabbed both Naruto and Sasuke and pulled them closer to herself and Kakashi.

"I think we should accept it," she said.

"But Sakura-chan-"

"I'm not finished," she continued. "I know it might not be typical of what you think of a mission, but I think this could be a good chance for us to practice our information gathering skills. Especially you, Naruto."

"Hey!"

Sasuke stayed silent but nodded along.

Naruto grumbled, but he couldn't disagree...plus there didn't seem to be anything else at the moment. He folded his arms. "Fine! But I bet I can gather information better than the both of you!"

Sakura rolled her eyes, and Kakashi accepted the mission for them. The Hokage told them that the young woman who hired them would be downstairs in a waiting room so that she can give them the rest of the details. Downstairs the four ninjas found a young lady, maybe one or two years older than the genin themselves standing with an attendant.

She was a very lovely young lady, taller than all three genin with a slim frame. She had olive tone skin and long dark brown hair with thick bangs covering her forehead. She wore a lovely light purple kimono with a golden flower pattern decorated on it. She had serious, dark brown eyes that looked over team 7, considering them. After a moment, she started to sob. The four ninjas looked between themselves.

"E-Excuse me," she said, wiping at her eyes. "I don't mean to break down in front of you. I've simply been under a lot of stress lately."

"Don't push yourself too hard," the attendant said, "I can explain if it's too much for you."

"Is this about the matter of the heart," Sakura asked.

The young lady nodded. "Forgive me, where are my manners. My name is Mikiko, and this is Mai. We are from a nearby village. I've requested help to catch my cheating fiance!"

A look of shock crossed the genin's faces.

"You're already getting married!?" Naruto asked.

"We're not getting married yet," Mikiko said, a blush covering her cheeks. "But he is my fiance."

"Excuse me, Mikiko-san," Sakura spoke up, "How do you know your fiance is cheating?"

Mikiko started to cry again, and Mai spoke up.

"That's where you all will come in. Throughout our village, there has been a lot of gossip about Mikiko-sama's fiance. She does her best to ignore it, she simply thought it was other jealous ladies since her fiance is young Koharu, he's a very popular young man," Mai explained. "But over time they've become something Mikiko-sama cannot ignore. It's starting to cause strain in their relationship. We've tried to investigate ourselves, but Koharu knows all of our people very well and could, if he wanted to, hide his activities from us.

We think having people from outside of our village gather information for us will be our best bet to silence all of the detractors and help Mikiko-sama regain confidence."

Naruto, Sasuke, and Kakashi thought all of that sounded convoluted, but Sakura moved forward the took Mikiko's hands.

"Don't worry, Mikiko-san; we'll gladly handle this for you."

Mikiko sniffled. "Oh, thank you all so much! It means a lot to me!"

"Alright, team," Kakashi spoke up. "Let's gather our supplies. We head out in a couple of hours. We'll meet near the front gates."

With that, everyone went home to gather up their things. Though Sasuke didn't voice it, he did think that this mission would be useful to him in the long run. He scored the highest marks during his academy days, but he hadn't actually had much chance to test his reconnaissance skills. He would take this mission seriously, even if he didn't care about romance.

Sakura would also be taking the mission various seriously, but unlike Sasuke, she did care about lady Mikiko and her romance troubles. Not being able to trust someone you love and care about must feel terrible. One can only hear something over and over so many times before they start to believe it. If Mikiko wanted to hire them, she must feel very lost and stressed out. She hoped that the rumors were simply rumors and didn't have any truth to them; she didn't want to deliver bad news to Mikiko and break her heart.

Naruto, in contrast, didn't think this mission would be very serious. At least not the romance part of it. But did want to prove Sakura wrong; he knew that people found him loud and annoying, but that didn't make him terrible at gathering information. He wasn't the screw-up people thought he was in the academy. He was a full-fledge ninja, and he would get everyone to acknowledge him as such.

When the three genin were ready, they gathered at the front gate along with Kakashi, Mai, and Mikiko.

"Alright, team seven," Kakashi said. "Our mission starts now. Let's go!"


End file.
